Posted on 03/22/2015 7:10:38 AM PDT by Citizen Zed
After watching a video at school last year about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, 12-year-old Fateh Alam came home and launched an online search to learn more about Osama bin Laden.
He also shared with his mother an impression he got from classmates that day: "I felt like everybody was looking at me."
"He just came home so disturbed," said Nida Alam, a 35-year-old mother of five from Wood Dale. "My son and my daughter both came home with this strange, agitated feeling."
Alam's anecdote underscores the challenge faced by suburban Muslim parents -- that their children may be labeled "terrorists" because they share a religion with those who use it to justify their fanaticism, and growing fears that they could fall prey to extremist elements through the Internet and social media.
Muslim community leaders, mosques and schools recognize that the threat of Muslim youths being recruited by extremist groups or being influenced by their propaganda is real in today's environment.
Three suburban cases have fanned those fears:
• A 19-year-old Bolingbrook man, Mohammed Hamzah Khan, arrested in October at O'Hare International Airport is charged with trying to persuade two younger siblings to go with him to Turkey to join Islamic State militants. Khan's mother made an emotional plea after one of her son's court appearances, asking the terrorists to "leave our children alone" and saying they are using social media to brainwash Muslim youths into joining their cause.
• In 2013, Abdella Ahmad Tounisi of Aurora was caught after the then-18-year-old posted messages on a fake website created by the FBI. Authorities say he agreed to travel to Syria to fight with an al-Qaeda-sponsored terrorist group.
• And in September 2012, Adel Daoud, of Hillside, 18 at the time, tried to detonate a presumed car bomb outside a downtown Chicago bar, according to federal authorities. The fake bomb, planted by FBI agents, didn't explode. The FBI began monitoring Daoud's activities in 2011, saying he posted messages online about killing Americans.
All three men have pleaded not guilty to charges. Their cases are pending.
Coming from a devout Pakistani Muslim family, Alam said she tries to protect her children from getting distorted ideas about Islam. She home-schools them about their religion, not even trusting weekend Islamic schools to do the job right.
"If we want to teach them values," she said, "we have to, inshaAllah (God willing), do it ourselves."
"By the third case we realized this was a trend here for us locally," said Gihad Ali, youth programs director for the group. "We don't want to wait for there to be a fourth youth (charged). It's been a trend for years in other parts of the country. We are not immune. We have one of the biggest Muslim populations in the country here in Chicago."
Ali said that in all three suburban cases, the teens were targeted through social media, and all were Muslim males who studied at private Islamic schools.
Ali has conducted more than a dozen workshops for Islamic schools, mosques and youth groups reaching roughly 750 teens. Training parents to be more vigilant is the other education component, she said.
"Parents need to talk to their children about this and put them on guard, basically," she said. "Young people are so curious and they have good intentions that can get taken advantage of."
"We try to keep the channels of communication open and we discuss stuff with them openly," Samdani said. "We want to make sure whatever questions they have about politics, religion, that they are able to talk to us first."
Teachers at her children's weekend Islamic schools at Islamic Foundation North near Libertyville and the Islamic Community Center of Des Plaines are young college students with whom they can better relate and bond. There are also Muslim youth groups and community gatherings for young people where they can talk about these events in a safe space, she said.
She said her children are involved in sports at school and activities, such as skiing and basketball, "where they spend their energy in a more healthy way."
"We try to not seclude our kids from the culture and the place where we are," she said. "Muslim kids should not be alienated from the society. The kids should not be sheltered from the mainstream, (yet) knowing their limits and staying within the religious boundaries."
Another mom, Anjum Mulla of Hanover Park, says children in elementary and junior high schools need a lot of community support.
"They need a (safe) place to hang out, youth activities, something that will keep them busy," said Mulla, who has three grown children who experienced some of the post-Sept. 11 backlash toward Muslims.
"There is a disconnect in masjids (mosques) between the youth and the older generation," she said. "The best thing we can do is get the youth more involved through programs, activities, get their input (on) what would they like to do instead of having speeches. That doesn't speak to them."
"That is a very dangerous approach," she said. "It's not because one youth is radical or another youth has family issues. ... The tactics of the recruiters (are) so advanced, so sly, deceptive. Grooming doesn't happen overnight. Anyone could fall victim to this."
Ali emphasizes Muslim youths are being targeted online in a way their non-Muslim peers aren't.
"One of the things we talk about is responsible behaviors online," she said. "What not to say. What things to look out for. What are some of the traps, some of the red flags of so-called online friends."
"Religious profiling is a reality," Ali said. "It's not something new. There is absolutely a distrust between the community and law enforcement, and there are reasons for it. Whether it's law enforcement or whether it's ISIS, they are all threats. We have to do what we can to educate them so they do not fall prey to these traps."
None of the families of the three suburban men who were under surveillance received a warning from authorities about their activities, whereas in the Colorado case the FBI went to Conley's parents three times before she was arrested, Ali said.
"Why the double standard?" Ali said. "Because Shannon Conley doesn't fit the profile of the FBI, whereas Hamza Khan does?"
Then don't raise them as moslems.
"She home-schools them about their religion"
This is like a satanist complaining that her kids, who are being raised as satanists, will become victims of satanism.
If they dont want their kids to be death cult members, perhaps they should leave the death cult?
She and millions of others should stand up,walk to the airport and self deport themselves.When you can’t tell the good ones from the bad ones,they all have to go.
Ali emphasizes Muslim youths are being targeted online in a way their non-Muslim peers aren't.
Anyone notice a contradiction here?
no “good” Muslims.
There probably are a few, but they are terrified of the crazies that most likely outnumber them.
Nothing but a bunch of likely sappers IMO.
3 simple steps. No jihad. No Sharia. No veneration of Mad Mo.
ALL moozlums either (a) are terrorists (b) actively support terrorists or (c) indirectly sup[port terrorists. These moozlum parents are headin’ for a beheadin’.
After WWII there were no real nazis in Germany either. Everyone had been “forced” to join the party.
(With whom the muslims were and remain allied with, BTW.)
And every Frenchman you talked to said he was “in the Resistance.”
They can convert somewhere else. I want them out of my country. I believe once brainwashed by Islam, there is no turning back. They may change their tunes, but not their hearts.
“The leader of Turkey said that there is no moderate Islam. Just Islam.”
Why is that so difficult to understand? Not only can a person hear the truth like this quote, but you can see the truth on a daily basis.
And what do we do about it? As a government, nothing that I can see.
“...not even trusting weekend Islamic schools to do the job right.”
Well this points to the fact that the muslim religion in general agrees with the muslim extremists.
It also shows an interesting recognition of some of the muslims that maybe, possibly, there is something inherently wrong with the muslim religion. Well, let’s introduce them to Christ.
If a Muslim follows the Koran and is a "good Muslim" (meaning: obedient), then they want to lie to infidels, and wage war against infidels. Any infidel who will not submit to Islam deserves to die. All obedient Muslims believe this -- they are good Muslims.
If a Muslim has assimilated somewhat, and takes a more "modern" view, then perhaps they seek to coexist. They will worship in their mosques, the Jews will worship in their temples, the Christians in their churches. These Muslims might be considered "good" in the eyes of the West.
But a "good" Muslim is not a good Muslim.
I don't think there are any "good" Muslims. Because the people I would call "good", would not be considered to be Muslims by other Muslims. They may be "good", but they are not obedient to the Koran.
Taqquiya. (sic) All false behaviour ok to an infidel.
this is why and how they have done this for years.
Egomanical appeaser sociopath, meet narcissist.
Agreed. Same people,different day. Hasn’t changed for the past 1,400 years since mohammed and his merry band of rapists, murderers,slavers and child molesters rode out of the saudi arabian desert committing mayhem and hell everywhere they went. Still doing it,those mohammedans, but now they’ve been let into the West and have started their games, by lies and stealth and little acts of terrorism, always probing and wearing down the weak and ignorant or cowards and appeasers. It’s gonna get ugly before long, but that’s what you’d expect if people every studied history, which they don’t seem to anymore.
Makes you wonder how many "good" muslims have volunteered to go to the middle east to fight AGAINST ISIS and Al Quaeda.
Along with:
Immediately defunding, kicking out and destroying the U.N. building.
Immediately cutting off any and all attempts at negotiations with Iran, and implementing the maximum load of sanctions.
Effective immediately, all muslims must either deport or be placed in internment location after which they will be forcefully deported.
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